A & E

I have next to no pictures on the 31st March and 1st of April for reasons I am about to explain. What a hectic couple of days!

Rob wanted to go out on a leavers do on the Thursday night but it was going to be in Bournemouth so he said he would go to work on the Thursday, stay over then come back Friday afternoon. My first time alone with all 3 boys, and over night! I immediately made arrangements for Mum to come over and stay.

Mum came over around 11am ish and I had managed to cope for the first part of the morning. The main pain in the bum is Leo so I sat him in his high chair with lots of Cheerios and a cup of milk which kept him busy for a while. I also did an update video of Oscar while I was waiting for Mum to arrive.

Mum helped out around the house but also sat chilling reading her book when she could.

Auntie Katie popped over for a visit and thankfully Sharon picked Ellis up to take him to his swimming lesson.

Once he was back we decided to go out to run a few errands. I wanted to pay the change jar into the bank, which was a lot of bags of change split up into different handbags as it was really heavy. I still shouldn't have been lifting heavy things so Mum helped out as much as she could.

Mum stayed in the car with the kids while I ran into the bank with the buggy filled with change bags. It took ages to pay it in. Ellis then came with me across to the other side of the high street to put a bag of clothes in the charity shop.

Then we thought it might be a nice idea to go to a soft play place but time was getting on and we got stuck in loads of traffic that was being diverted because of road works. It was a nightmare and the kids were getting restless. We changed our plan and went to a more local soft play place which was in a pub.

It was quite hard work as the soft play is on 3 levels and Leo didn't want to play at first and Ellis wasn't happy as he didn't have anyone to play with. I tried my best to get around with them but I was probably doing a bit too much.

Then Ellis decided to run down one of the little slides and fell down quite badly. I knew he had hurt himself straight away as I had seen how his foot had gone over and he had landed on it too. He didn't cry too much and was very brave but would not put any weight on his foot. His foot swelled slightly and I couldn't get his shoe on and so he just hopped everywhere. We tried to see if he could put weight on it to walk but he wouldn't. I knew I had to take him to A&E but he did walk on it a little bit and was upset that we weren't going to the restaurant for food. As he had taken some steps on it we decided to grab some food first.

Back at home Ellis was still not able to walk and complained that his foot was hurting. I called Dad to come over so that he could take Ellis, Oscar and I to the hospital.

Once Leo was tucked up in bed we went to the hospital. Mum was set up with her stuff on TV and we thought we might be a while so had brought a few things with us to keep us busy. We arrived at A&E and parked in a spot we were pretty sure we weren't allowed to but I said we would just go in first and see how long we might be. There were people hobbling towards the door and I just legged it with Oscar in the buggy to sign Ellis in before they got in! It was quite funny as they tried to hobble faster than me.

I made it to the desk first but could tell we would be in for a bit of a wait as the reception was full, so was the floor and tables! I spoke to the receptionist (who is a Mum from pre-school) and she said it would be over 4 hours wait just to see the registrar! While Dad and I were contemplating what to do, Ellis asked to get out of the buggy, which he did on his own and then proceeded to walk to a little table and sat down! He hadn't done that before so that made my mind up that we would come back if he didn't improve.

We arrived back home and Ellis was allowed to stay up for 5 more minutes before going to bed at about 9:30pm.

I sat up with Mum, just watching TV etc and feeding Oscar and then she went up to bed, in my bed, and I stayed on the sofa. Oscar was sleeping in the blue chair anyway and the sofa was comfy enough. I did stay up for a long time watching TV though and when the security light went off in the garden I watched a huge fox for a while.

I actually slept quite well and Oscar fed and slept a lot on me, on the sofa.

In the morning I was feeding Oscar as Leo woke up so eventually Mum got him up and I met her on the stairs to take him off her. Well he walked actually as I still couldn't lift him.

I set Leo up for breakfast in the kitchen on his booster seat attached to the bar stool. Bad idea in hindsight, and Ellis and Oscar were in the living room. I put my head around the door to check that they were okay and heard a loud bang from the kitchen followed by Leo screaming. I found him flat on his back still sat in the booster seat, still attached to the stool. I got him out quickly and checked him over. He was pale and crying and Mum soon came down to see what had happened. I think Leo was a bit shocked as he screamed and screamed at one point. He was pale and shaking but soon calmed down and was acting normal again.

I walked Ellis to school and came back to a screaming Oscar who wanted feeding yet again. That kid just eats! But also we didn't really know it then but he was really struggling with trapped wind and colic.

I dressed Oscar in what was supposed to have been his coming home outfit. It was really nice and snuggly but I was glad I hadn't used it as his coming home outfit.

Leo went down for his nap at the usual time and Mum and I chilled out and pottered.

Rob came home from work at 2:30pm and Leo was stirring so he went up to get him. As he entered the living room Leo vomited all over himself, Rob, the floor and door. We all quickly cleared up and bathed him. With 3 of us it took no time at all.

We realised though that with the fall and head bang in the morning followed by vomiting, he must be taken to A&E to make sure he was okay. I packed a change bag and a few books and cars and Rob took him as I can't drive and would have to take Oscar with me too.

I picked Ellis up from school and Mum and I just sorted out the washing, chilled, pottered while the kiddies napped.

I was in touch a lot with Rob in the hospital and Leo had been sick in again in the car park, in the reception area and in the cubicle while being observed so was moved into a little room where they could observe him further. He had to not be sick for a period of time before they would let him go home.

Dad came over to sit with me and Mum went home after a tiring couple of days. If Rob needed anything then Dad would have to take it as I couldn't drive and Ellis was in bed too. They were eventually allowed to come home and got back at about 9:30pm. Leo went straight to bed.

It had been a very trying couple of days and I was really worried about how I was going to cope on my own when Mum and Dad weren't around. Rob had been away a day and a half and 2 of the boys had gone to A&E! Hopefully that would be the last of it.